


Mysteries of the Deep

by starksborn



Series: Norman/Tony Mermaid AU [1]
Category: Marvel
Genre: Alternate Universe, Other, mermaid au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-04
Updated: 2014-06-04
Packaged: 2018-02-03 09:03:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1738976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starksborn/pseuds/starksborn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fic prompt: Norman/Tony, mermaid AU. Norman is a marine biologist with a big boat, Tony is a mermaid prince attracted to shiny things he finds in his waters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mysteries of the Deep

Putting money into an oceanic expedition with a newly acquired research vessel was Norman’s way of getting  _out_  of work, really. “Here,” he was basically saying, “I’m giving you money,  _now leave me alone._ " 

He gets called in a week after it launches, and they show him a captive specimen in a large tank, caught accidentally when it seemed to be swimming too close to some very expensive equipment, and his mood is foul the entire time. He expects, of course that he’s been called in to look at some stupid whale.

Imagine his surprise when there’s a humanoid creature floating lazily in the tank, flipping over and swimming in graceful arcs. A red, scaly tail flecked with gold, trailing up over the torso and neck, seemingly disappearing within the dark hair. Norman’s standing in front of the tank, rubbing at the slight stubble on his chin and attempting to figure out what to do. 

"Dissect it," he finally says, catching the alarmed attention of a technician. 

"But…sir?" The tech looks between the tank and Norman, and the creature inside cocks its head, and a stream of bubbles come out of it’s nose. They can hear faint clicking noises. "It’s…human."

"Because humans frequently have tails?" Norman casts a cold green eye upon the younger man. To his credit, the tech doesn’t even waver. 

"It appears to be sentient," he says. "It responds, although not very vocally."

"This expedition was a mission for science, my boy," Norman says, putting a firm hand on the man’s shoulder. "Sometimes when you science, you get to cut things up." 

He smirks a little at this. 

"Sometimes they’re even alive."

"Just give me a few days, then," the tech says. "Let me study it alive. I can learn more if it’s alive than I can if it’s dead and trying to keep it from decomposing. Please, sir." 

Norman rolls his eyes and throws his hands up a little. 

"Fine, whatever," he says. He makes a motion to dismiss the tech, who casts another quick glance at the tank before hurrying across the hangar to the exit doors. 

Norman has to admit, he himself is curious. And usually when he gets curious about something, he cuts it open and pokes around on the inside of it to figure out what makes it work. Sometimes he even puts it back together, with varied results.  He eyes the creature as he walks up the metal ladder to the catwalk behind the tank, running his hand along the railing and coming to a stop at the top. He leans over, looking down into the open water below. The creature does a lap in the tank, and then pauses, glancing up at him. 

And then it lashes it’s tail and kicks up a cloud of muck and mire from the bottom of the tank, and Norman can’t see through the water to find it. He scowls, and tilts his head down, squinting to see through the settling water—

—when something breaks the surface mere feet from his face and water sprays all over him. 

"Jesus!" he snaps, jumping back. He can taste salt in his mouth and his shirt is damp, and there’s an odd clicking noise filling the air. It’s different from the one before; that one was almost squeaky, while this one is deeper. Laughter, maybe? 

"You people are always so damn jumpy," a voice says. That’s when Norman realizes the thing is leaning halfway out of the top of the tank, head poking out from under the second bar on the railing. 

"Oh my god, it can talk," Norman says, quite dumbly. 

"Oh my god, it can observe things!" the the creature says in response. 

Norman simply stares for a long moment, still standing with his arm shielding his face from the water splash. It takes him a while to get his wits about him and he’s back to frowning when he does. The creature is resting its head in its hand, looking at him with a raised eyebrow. Norman realizes suddenly that it’s been so long since something truly interesting has happened within his scientific studies, he’s forgotten how to react.

So he takes a step forward and squats down, coming more within eye level of it. It cocks its head a little, continuing to stare at him with a pair of almost glowing blue eyes.

"You’re not really gonna dissect me, are you?" it asks finally. "Because someone else tried that once and I gotta say, didn’t really end well for them." 

"How can you talk?" Norman asks. It sounds stupid the way he says it but it’s the only thing going through his head. That this thing is speaking English to him. He doesn’t even appeared to have heard the question.

"Why is that always the first thing you people ask? I mean, really." 

Norman’s frowning again. It can talk, and it appears to be annoying. What an odd turn of events. 

"Oh, I’m sorry," he says, leaning back on his heels a little. "Did I offend you?"

"A little, yeah." 

Norman’s level of exasperation boils over, and he groans in frustration, standing back up abruptly. The…well, now he’s not sure if he should refer to it as thing or creature… fish? Specimen, yes, that would work. The specimen seems startled by his standing up, and pushes away from the cat walk, dipping under the water and then coming up again. It blinks a few times, water rolling down its face as it bobs in the water. 

"If this is about those broken blinking boxes, I was just trying to see how it worked," it says suddenly. "I keep getting warned about getting being so close to boats, but it was beeping at me. I mean, I know you people use sonar and stuff, but this was new. It’s been a while since something new has come around." 

Wait. 

It was studying the boat? Norman runs his hands over his face, closing his eyes for a second, exhaling deeply. When he lowers his hands, he finds he’s still being watched. It’s slightly less annoying than he would have expected it to be. He moves towards a break in the cat walk, where it drops down to a lower platform hanging over the tank. Originally it was meant for dolphins or whales to slide up on for people to inspect them, but Norman uses it to get a tad closer, dropping down on it and squatting down again. He knows it could be dangerous, but he figures it’s no more dangerous than anything else he does in his spare time. 

The specimen seems pleased that Norman got closer, and ducks under the water, zipping down the feet of tank and surfacing again just out of reach. It’s being cautious. Interesting. 

"Why don’t you people ever ask my name?" it asks, suddenly. He could just be projecting—the one thing you’re never supposed to do as a scientist exploring a new species— but Norman swears it almost looks hurt, or confused. 

"What?" he asks. 

"Well I mean, you’re not the first human I’ve talked to," it says. "It would make sense that I have a name, right? And yet no one’s ever asked me." 

There’s a pause. 

"What is your name?" 

It smiles, even, and swims closer. 

"There’s no word for it in English," it says. "The closest would be…ah…Anthony?  No, wait…Tony!" 

"You name is Tony." Norman says. He suddenly feels tired, very tired. Lately that seems to be his body’s response to things he’s not sure how to process. Get tired, sleep it off, and then forget it happened. 

"Yes!" Tony says, he’s smiling and bobbing up and down in the water. Norman blinks, wondering why simply hearing a name caused him to stop thinking of Tony as an it or a  _specimen_  and as a  _he_. 

"What’s your name?" Tony asks, jutting forward and sliding the upper part of his body onto the platform. Water sloshes around the soles of Norman’s shoes, and he can feel it soaking into his socks. Tony doesn’t seem to notice. 

"That’s not important," Norman says. He knows not to even try to go there. You don’t start exchanging names with something you’re going to put in a tube and cut into tiny pieces. Tony cocks his head and is frowning at him now. 

"Sure it is," he says. "Names are very important." 

"What are you?" Norman asks. He might as well try to get as much basic information as he can. 

"What do you think I am?" 

_You keep back talking me and you’re going to be my goddamn sushi,_  Norman thinks idly. 

"Come on, guess!" Tony prods. "Humans have been obsessed with us since like the start of time!" 

"Are you telling me you’re a mermaid?" Norman asks flatly. 

"Well, mer _man_ , but yeah.” 

Norman’s brain promptly rejects that idea, and he starts almost internally arguing with himself about it.

_That’s ridiculous,_  he thinks. 

_It’s not possible,_  he adds.

_The proof is in front of you,_  shoots back through his mind, and he quickly realizes this is getting him nowhere fast. There’s always the possibility Tony is lying to him, but at the same time…he’s sitting on a platform above a giant whale aquarium, holding a conversation with what is presumably a fish.

Perhaps standard science is not going to be adequate at this time.

“Are you having a hard time taking that in because I had someone get mad at me once,” Tony suddenly says. “They kept saying I didn’t exist which was really weird considering I’m  _right here_.”

“I am a scientist,” Norman says slowly. “My job is to find out why things do what they do. Mythical sea creatures aren’t my usual field of study.”

“Well…there’s a first time for everything right?”

Norman cocks his head a little at the saying.

“How much do you know about humans?” he asks. Tony seems to really respond to this, flipping his tail excitedly and grinning some more. It’s as if he’s elated that someone is not only talking to him, but asking him questions about himself. 

"A lot!" he says. "Well, more than most of my kind." 

"And your kind are mermaids?" 

"That’s not the word we use, no." 

"What word do you use?" 

Tony repeats something, and it’s so far from any of the five languages Norman knows that he doesn’t even try to retain it. It’s odd to think that this species, whatever it is, has a language of their own that sounds like more than the usual vocalizations you hear from fish and other underwater creatures. 

"If you have your own language, what’s with the clicking noises?" he asks. 

"Don’t humans have more than one language?" Tony retorts. In hindsight, that does make sense. Norman wonders if he’s really this stupid or if Tony is making him look stupid. 

Norman goes to say something else when suddenly his phone vibrates in his back pocket. He frowns and reaches around to get it, and Tony is craning his neck to stare at it, seemingly interested in it. This, and the mention of the boxes Tony was caught messing with causes Norman to think he has an interest in human technology. 

How odd, he muses as he answers the phone. The conversation is quick and he’s standing up as he’s ending the call.

"Well it seems our conversation has come to an end," he says. He steps back up to the catwalk, groaning a little at the pain that shoots through his knees from having all his weight on them for so long. Jesus, he feels old. 

"Hey, wait!" Tony calls, and there’s frantic splashing as he pushes off the platform and hits the water again. Norman pauses halfway to the stairs and leans over the railing. 

"What?" 

"You haven’t…told me your name yet." 

Norman smirks a little. 

"It doesn’t matter since I’m likely going to have you on a cold slab within the next 72 hours." He hits the top of the stairs and takes a few steps down, dipping below the water line in the tank and stopping only when he realizes Tony is making that clicking noise again, or a variation of it. It takes a second to notice, but it’s different. 

He glances over to find Tony watching him through the glass, and there’s an expression on his face Norman can’t read. He motions for Norman to go back up, and that’s when he realizes Tony can’t talk below the water line. So he humors the…ah,  _mer_ man and steps back up. 

"Please?" Tony asks when he breaks the surface. "I’ve haven’t had a human friend before." 

"We are the entire opposite of friends," Norman says. 

"Well you haven’t hurt me yet," Tony says. "So I think we’re okay for now." 

He’s going to regret this. Norman  _knows_ that he is going to regret this, just like he knows that the sun is hot and space is cold. Maybe that’s why it seems comforting, now, in light of all these new things he does not know. 

"My name is Norman," he says, knowing full well he’s breaking one of his own ground rules for his profession. 

Despite this, there’s an odd sensation he gets when Tony beams at him, happy with learning his new companions name, and dives back into the water to do a few complex dives and turns. 

Something almost like content. 


End file.
